Tales of Spirit Mountain:Early Days in the Lake Superior Region

Tales of Spirit Mountain: Early Days in the Lake Superior Region
Third Edition

By Anne Crooks

170 pages with maps and period graphics.

Anne Crooks can be reached at:
crooksanne@msn.com

Tales of Spirit Mountain is a collection of stories depicting the lives of Ojibwe Indians and early pioneers in the Lake Superior region around the ports of present-day Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota. Taken from diaries, local histories and pioneer newspapers, these stories are written in narrative non-fiction style by author Anne Crooks to bring to the reader's imagination moments from the past not covered in a textbook. The drama unfolds through stories of an Indian couple and their ill-fated love; the diary of a missionary wife; a fur trader's frustrating attempts to provide for a family whose numbers keep increasing; food shortages during a fierce winter; the settlers who fled the hardships and those hardy pioneers who stayed to build communities.

"I've always been intrigued by Duluth history; who settled the region and why," says author Anne Crooks of the city where she lived for over 30 years. Her article on early Duluth townsites was selected for publication in the Duluth history book, "Sketches of the Past." She was writer and editor for Duluth Budgeteer and Skyworld Duluth News newspapers, and Lake Superior Magazine where one of her articles won first place, historical category, in a Minnesota Press Women contest. Her extensive editorial and writing career also includes a 50-year history of the Minnesota Safety Council, articles in Minnesota Monthly and Midwest Living, as well as correspondent for regional newspapers and magazines in Minnesota.